Darren competes in the Techno Wind surfing event at the recent 19th Sukma in Perak.
MIRI: Sarawak Sailing head coach Hamdan Yahya is proud of his charges despite their failure to meet the one-gold medal target at the recent Perak Sukma.
He is particularly happy with the spirited display put up by the young 12-member team.
“Even though we have only two days of training there, our athletes still provide fierce competition with other athletes and this is the spirit that we want,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
The team won one silver medal through Darron Chin Hui Jie in the Techno Wind surfing event.
Hamdan stressed that Sarawak is still new in sailing compared to East Coast states in the Peninsula like Terengganu.
It was only two years ago that Sarawak first took part in the sport at the 2016 Sukma Sarawak.
However, he was quite disappointed that some states at the recent Sukma Perak were represented by some national sailors.
“It (Sukma) is supposed to be a stage to unearth and highlight new talents especially those with the potential to represent the nation,” he said.
Nevertheless, he highlighted the fact that Sarawak sailors are aged 12 to 17 as they can look forward to the 2020 Sukma to be held in Johor.
“Our focus is on developing this sailing sport because we have many young athletes who have the potential to go to another level and achieve more,” he said.
“We will continue the training and participate in other tournaments to improve our young athlete’s skills,” he explained.
Their next assignment will be a competition in Brunei Darussalam in November.